The Debaters Allege Racial Overtones.

'She Is A Thorough And Careful Judge'

Surely it was no accident Wednesday that Republicans sent forth Priscilla Owen, a soft-spoken Texas Supreme Court justice, to open the Senate's political brawl over President Bush's judicial nominees.

The 50-year-old jurist, who also teaches Sunday school, comes across as a mainstream conservative.

Owen -- born Oct. 4, 1954, in Palacios, Texas -- grew up in Waco and earned her undergraduate and law degrees from Baylor University.

She's not known for making provocative speeches -- unlike California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, another Bush nominee. Nor are Owen's opinions filled with sharp jabs, like those of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Instead, she has made her mark by writing or joining scores of legal opinions that have made it harder for consumers and other plaintiffs to sue businesses in Texas.

"She is a thorough and careful judge who works hard and wrestles with every case," former Texas Chief Justice Thomas Phillips said Wednesday. He rejected the notion that Owen was a right-wing activist who put politics before the law.

"She is a very good lawyer, and I don't think it's easy to typecast her. We (Texas justices) tend to deal with interpreting statutes, not with big constitutional issues. But I never saw her as being on some sort of personal crusade," said Phillips, who was seen as a moderate.

The Texas Supreme Court doesn't handle criminal cases or death penalty appeals. Its docket is filled with civil disputes, many involving business.

In the 1980s, it was known as a populist, pro-plaintiff court friendly to trial lawyers. The justices regularly upheld huge money verdicts against corporations. Not surprisingly, business interests set out to replace them with jurists who would favor business.

Owen, an oil-and-gas lawyer from Houston, was elected in 1994, in the midst of a Republican sweep that brought George W. Bush to the governor's mansion. Today, the entire court is conservative.

"I'm surprised Priscilla has become a poster child in this dispute," former Justice Craig Enoch said. "It's fair to say she is conservative, but it is also true the electorate in this state wanted judges who will carefully follow the law. I had disagreements with her, but even when I thought she was wrong, I thought her position was reasonable. She was respectful of her colleagues. There was no intemperate language or personal attacks."

Five years ago, the Texas Supreme Court was torn over how to interpret a new state abortion law that said parents had to be notified before their daughters had abortions -- except when this notification "may lead to physical, sexual or emotional abuse of the minor." In such instances, a judge could allow the girl to bypass the notification law if she was "mature and sufficiently well-informed" to make the abortion decision on her own.

In a series of "Jane Doe" cases, the Texas justices were split. In one 5-4 decision, the court -- including Phillips -- overruled a judge who blocked a 17-year-old from getting an abortion without notifying a parent. The majority said the girl had considered the alternatives and had demonstrated maturity.

Owen dissented. She said the court should have upheld the judge who questioned the girl and decided that she wasn't sufficiently mature to decide on her own. State legislators assumed that parents would be notified in all but rare cases, she said.

Linda Eads, a law professor at Southern Methodist University, said Owen had been unfairly tarnished by the dispute.

"I'm pro-choice, and I support the judicial bypass (for minors), but I think the parental abortion decisions have been grossly mischaracterized," Eads said. "This was a new law, and the legislation had not defined 'informed consent,' and the court had to struggle over the standard." Owen's "standard was more strict than some of the others, but it was not shocking. It was reasonable and judgelike."

Eads said she voted Democratic more often than Republican. She said, "I read a lot of her opinions, and I disagreed with some of them. But I never read an opinion where I thought she distorted the law. She is conservative, but everyone on that court is conservative."

There are plenty of pro-business rulings in Owen's past.

Three years ago, when Owen was first nominated to a U.S. appeals court, the Senate Judiciary Committee -- then controlled by Democrats -- held a daylong hearing. It criticized the Texas judge for a series of business-friendly decisions.

For example, there was the case of Dena Read, a woman raped in her home by a Kirby vacuum salesman. The company hadn't checked his background, which included being fired from a previous job for sexual offenses. The woman won a $160,000 jury verdict, and the Texas Supreme Court upheld the award 6-3. Owen dissented, arguing that the salesman was an independent contractor. For that reason, Kirby shouldn't be held liable, she said.

All 10 Democrats on the Senate committee voted against her confirmation in 2002, saying she had a record of tilting the law in favor of business. After his re-election, Bush renominated Owen to the U.S. appeals court.

The now-Republican-controlled committee endorsed her on a party-line 10-8 vote. *

FAST FACTS ON TEXAS JUSTICE PRISCILLA OWEN

* She's an oil-and-gas lawyer from Houston.

* She's a 50-year-old jurist who teaches Sunday school.

* She's not known for making provocative speeches.

* She has made her mark by writing or joining scores of legal opinions that have made it harder for consumers and other plaintiffs to sue businesses in Texas.

* She was elected in 1994, in a Republican sweep that brought George W. Bush to the Texas governor's mansion. *